


the same old streets (extras)

by thesameoldstreets



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2020-01-23 12:15:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18549577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesameoldstreets/pseuds/thesameoldstreets
Summary: Extra snippets to go with The Same Old Streets.





	1. Alex/Nick, November 2018

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be posting extra scenes in this work. They're not in order and the ratings of these extras will vary. I'll try to give you a vague idea of where they take place in the story. These don't have an update schedule; I'll just edit and post them whenever I have time. 
> 
> Feel free to swing by the tumblr (thesameoldstreets.tumblr.com) if you have any requests.

Byron barks at Nick when he unlocks the door. It’s a soft bark, not the kind that’s for strangers whose cars and footsteps he doesn’t recognize, but the kind that sounds like a _welcome home_ more than anything else. Alex’s house is warm, familiar, the lights on in the living room, the kitchen, but it’s quiet. There’s a dog toy in the hallway, all chewed up.

“Hey, buddy,” Nick whispers and reaches down to scratch Byron’s head. “I missed you.”

That earns him another soft _whuff_.

Since Byron is here, Alex was probably home after he got back from East Harbor today. Nick already went to his own house, dropped off Connor and hugged Emily for as long as she let him. He didn’t think he’d make it to Alex’s this early. Well, he was actually supposed to get back way earlier, but their flight of out Winnipeg was delayed because of the weather and so they didn’t end up flying back until this morning.

Nick puts down his bag by the stairs and gets off his boots, hangs his coat on one of the hooks by the door. He has his own hook. A designated Nick hook. It’s like this is his home, too. Everything he brings over has its place, his coat, his shoes, and there’s an outlet in the kitchen where he always plugs in his phone, a pillow on the couch that Alex won’t touch, because he knows it’s Nick’s favorite. He has clothes in Alex’s closet and a toothbrush in a cup in the bathroom and Alex buys his favorite food and puts it in the fridge.

Byron nudges his knee, so Nick sets down the pucks he was carrying on the table next to the couch. He brought them over because he wanted to show Alex. Not that Alex didn’t watch the game where Nick scored the hatty, not that Nick didn’t send him pictures of himself with his stack of pucks. He wanted to show Alex so badly, because Alex was so happy for him when he left Nick a message after the game, but right now Nick needs both of his hands to pet Byron properly.

Nick sits down on the floor with him.

Byron puts his head in Nick’s lap, tail tapping against the hardwood floor. He perks up a few minutes later, probably because he can hear Alex’s car coming up the driveway. Byron leaves Nick to wait by the door and Nick trails after him, opening the door for Alex, who’s coming up to the door with about four grocery bags in each hand.

“Nicky,” Alex says, smiling broadly. He speeds up his steps and practically drops the bags as soon as he’s in through the door. He kicks it shut and wraps his arms around Nick, squeezing him tightly. Nick can feel how cold Alex’s hands are through his shirt.

Nick squeezes him back, Alex’s cold fingers brushing down the back of his neck, then back up, winding into his hair. Nick doesn’t say hello, he just kisses Alex, trying to pull him as close as he possibly can. It’s only been five days since they last saw each other, but every time Nick went to sleep at night he thought of Alex and how much he’d like to fall asleep next to him. Tonight he’ll crawl into bed with him. Tomorrow as well. The day after, too. Nick tucks his face into the crook of Alex’s neck and presses a quick kiss to his skin right above the collar of his shirt. His skin is cold there, too. He needs a scarf.

“I got a fuckton of chicken for you,” Alex says and then squirms. “Hey, buddy, no…”

Nick looks down at Byron, who seems a little too interested in the groceries that Alex just dropped by the door. “Here, I’ll get these,” Nick says and starts gathering up the bags.

“I’ll get the rest from the car,” Alex says and gives Nick another kiss, missing his mouth by just a bit, before he ducks back outside.

Byron follows Nick to the kitchen, watching him put away groceries with rapt attention. Alex wasn’t kidding, there is a fuckton of chicken in those bags. Nick puts half of it in the freezer, then forgets about the rest of the groceries when he finds a bag of potato chips. He’s fucking starving and Alex will probably forgive him for getting sidetracked.

The door slams shut and Byron starts scrambling towards Alex. “Uh… Nicky?”

Nick frowns and puts down the potato chips to peer through the window between the kitchen and the living room. “What?”

Alex points at the pucks that Nick left on the table. “Yours?” He smirks. “Because it’s been a while since my last hatty.”

“Oh, yeah. From the other day.” Nick doesn’t even try to bite down his grin. “I wanted to show you.”

Alex drops the rest of the groceries on the coffee table, where they’re definitely not safe from Byron, and takes the pucks, his smile soft when he traces the writing with his finger. “That was a good hatty. I’m glad I managed to watch that game.”

Nick nods and slowly makes his way over to him, just because he wants to get his hands back on him. Alex throws his arm around him and kisses the top of his head. Nick leans into him. Alex’s sweater is really soft and he always smells so good and Nick really misses those things when he’s on the road, because, yeah, he can always call Alex, but he can’t push his face into Alex’s sweater when he’s hundreds or thousands of miles away.

“What are you gonna do with them?” Alex asks. “Frame them?”

“Or leave them on your shelf?”

“You don’t wanna take them home?”

Nick shrugs. This is home, too, and Alex seems to understand exactly that a moment later, because he hums and puts the pucks on the shelf that also houses maybe half of Alex’s books and some souvenirs and other knickknack, some of which Nick brought back from roadies. Alex lines up the pucks next to one other. They all have the Sailors logo on them.

“I almost want to send my dad a picture of that,” Alex says lowly. “I won’t. But I want to.”

Nick laughs. “Do you think he’d find it funny?”

“Oh, he’d think it’s hilarious, but…” Alex shakes his head. “Are you sure you want them there? It’s not like I’m throwing parties every night, but people will see them.”

“Everyone we know has gotten at least one puck from me, it’s not…”

“It’s a hat trick,” Alex says, before Nick can tell him that it’s not a big deal.

Fine, maybe it’s a bigger deal than just one puck.

“Maybe we can take them upstairs,” Nick says. He wants Alex to have these, because Alex secretly loves it when Nick brings him hockey stuff. He’d never ask Nick to bring him anything, but he gets that smile on his face whenever Nick gives him something. Nick knows that smile. He likes that smile.

“Upstairs is good.” Alex looks up at the pucks. “We can leave them for now, though. I’m– Hey, Byron, no, not yours.”

Alex lets go of Nick to shoo Byron away from the coffee table, where one of the bags has fallen over. Alex grabs a can of refried beans before it can roll away and sighs. “Okay. Buddy, move… I really need to take him out for a proper walk.”

“Let’s go later.”

“Really? Aren’t you fucking exhausted?”

He is. He’ll still pick a walk with Alex and Byron over going to bed early. “Don’t worry about me.”

“It’ll be a short one anyway. It’s cold as fuck.”

“Okay,” Nick says. “Want help with dinner?”

“Nah, just grab some of these bags for me, okay?”

Nick does, but before he can wander away, Alex catches him by the elbow. “Hey…”

“Hm?”

Alex doesn’t say anything at first, just reaches out to brush his thumb across Nick’s cheek. “Thanks for the pucks,” Alex finally mutters.


	2. Finn/Andy, first meeting

The first time Finn meets Andrew Daniels, they’re basically babies. Adult babies.

Finn is fresh out of college, back home in Silver Lakes with his parents. He never really knew what he wanted out of college, only went because that’s what everyone did, because his family could afford to send him and it meant a lot to his dad.

He’s supposed to go to law school at some point.

Then his mom gets diagnosed with cancer.

So he goes home and he gets a job at the rink in Cedar Mills, because he remembers how to skate and his schedule is flexible. It pays well enough that he doesn’t have to feel like he’s relying on his parents, even though they’re both eternally grateful that he’s around to help out. His dad can’t always take time off work to drive her to doctor’s appointments and chemotherapy. He has a job that he likes and Finn doesn’t want him to have to choose.

Finn doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life anyway.

It’s strange, being back home now, after he was away for so long, only popping in for a few weeks in the summer for his internships at the family law firm. He’s only there because he’s an Engel, not because he’s particularly interested in law.

His dad makes him promise that he’ll still consider law school, but doesn’t push him. Finn couldn’t focus on school right now anyway. He barely made it through finals and graduation.

Some of the guys he went to high school with are still in town, some are on the hockey team, and Finn doesn’t know what he was expecting, but he sure as fuck wasn’t expecting them to be nice to him. The hockey kids were _never_ nice to him, because Finn has always been very gay and he’s never been quiet about it, and a lot of people didn’t like that about him.

Now the rink has a little rainbow flag in a cup in the front office window and the captain of the Vikings talks to Finn when he comes to open hockey practice in the evening and asks him how his day is going. His daughter is transgender, he tells Finn a couple of weeks later, and she’d love to learn how to figure skate, and that’s how Finn ends up with his first one-on-one student.

Finn is practically part of the team when Andrew Daniels joins them as a goalie.

The first time he meets him, they’re both invited to a party at Reese Brennan’s place. Finn is late, because he was at home with his mom and he’s exhausted and just about ready to collapse. He should have just bought some chocolate cake, the good kind they have at _Dina’s_ in Silver Lakes, and gone home to lie on the couch and wallow in self-pity. The only good thing is that the party is already in full swing when he arrives and everyone’s probably wasted or getting there, so nobody will notice if he fucks off early.

The thing is, he doesn’t even make it into the house.

Because there’s a sad boy on the doorstep and Finn, even as exhausted and not-in-the-mood as he is, can’t just walk past a sad boy.

He’s not crying or anything, he just looks… crushed. Completely defeated.

Seems like it’s not a good day for anyone. Finn’s been worried about his mom since this morning, Alex was having the worst day at the rink today, his leg clearly killing him, refusing to sit down, because he had work to do, Patty shaking his head at him. He was definitely mad at himself, for something Finn couldn’t quite figure out. Finn asked him if he wanted to make out in the equipment room, but Alex ignored him. He pretty much ignored him all day, really.

Finn will probably get an apology for that after Alex’s next therapy session on Monday.

And now this guy is clearly not having the greatest day either.

Finn doesn’t know him, which is weird, because he thought he knew everyone on the team, everyone’s friends, everyone in a ten-mile radius who might get invited to these parties.

“Hey,” Finn says.

The guy looks up, and, boy, does he have _eyelashes_. “Hey.”

“You okay?” Finn asks. He can’t just walk past him without saying a word. Maybe he’s just having an existential crisis. He’s maybe a little older than Finn, two or three years at the most, and a few months ago Finn would have insisted that they’re too young for such a thing, but since he’s had about a dozen existential crises in the past three months, he definitely considers it a possibility.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know you,” Finn says.

The guy shrugs. “That’s hardly surprising. I’ve never been here before.”

“Oh,” Finn says. He knows who this guy is now. The accountant that Mitch invited to join the team. Goalie. He looks tall. “You’re… the new guy. The accountant.”

“Andy,” the guy says.

“Hi, Andy the Accountant. I’m Finn. You’ll be seeing me around.”

A smile tugs at Andy’s lips. “Yeah?”

“I work at the rink. And I come to all the parties,” Finn tells him. “Nice to meet you. Why are you out here?”

“I just needed a minute.”

Finn frowns down at him. He’s not wearing a jacket and he’s clutching his phone. Bad news maybe? Finn shouldn’t pry. He shrugs off his jacket, though, and gently slings it around Andy’s shoulders.

“Uh…”

“It’s cold,” Finn says. “I don’t know how long the minute you needed is gonna be and I’m going inside anyway, so…” He shrugs. It’s not a big deal.

“Thank you,” Andy says, but his voice cracks halfway through and the rest just comes out as a whisper.

“Oh, hey…” Finn sits down next to him and pulls him into a hug, this guy he just met, less than five minutes ago, this guy he knows absolutely nothing about, other than his first name, his job, and that he has really amazing eyelashes. Finn doesn’t tell him that it’s going to be okay, because he has no idea what the fuck is going on here and he won’t make promises he can’t keep, so he just holds on tight while Andy cries on his shirt. “Shit, and I thought I was having a bad day.”

Andy sniffles and pulls away. “Why, what happened to you?”

“My mom has cancer.”

“Fuck, I’m so sorry.”

“What happened to you?” Finn asks, because now he’s definitely allowed to. A fair exchange of information.

“Family dinner.”

Finn raises his eyebrows.

“You’d have to know my family, they’re…”

“Say no more,” Finn says. He’s really not feeling this party and his new friend Andy doesn’t seem to be either, so he asks, “You wanna get chocolate cake with me?”

Andy is looking at Finn like he’s fucking lost it. There’s a teardrop clinging to his eyelashes and it drops on his cheek when he blinks. “Chocolate cake?”

“Yes,” Finn says and reaches out to wipe the tear off Andy’s cheek, which is such a stupid move that Finn considers punching himself in the face. He can’t walk this planet falling in love with every boy with good eyelashes he meets. “Chocolate cake might be more fun than crying on Reese’s doorstep.”

“Good point,” Andy mutters.

Finn gets to his feet, because he is definitely getting chocolate cake. He doesn’t need to go to every fucking party.

He holds out his hand. His heart flutters treacherously when Andy takes it.


	3. Alex/Nick, March 2019

Byron is waiting by the door when Nick slips into the house. Nick gives him a pat in greeting, sets down his bag out of reach and starts pulling off his hat and scarf and coat. It’s early March and it’s still freezing.

“Nicky, you’re early,” Alex says from the living room.

“Sorry.”

He can hear Alex snort. “It’s okay,” Alex says.

Nick pulls off his shoes and puts them to the side. Byron leans over to sniffs them and then decides that they’re not actually interesting enough, so he turns back to Nick and nudges his hand.

“Hey, you…” Nick kneels down next to him and dedicates a minute or two to petting him before he joins Alex in the living room.

Alex is sitting by the fireplace, poking at the fire. He has a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“Is the heating broken?” Nick asks and sits down next to him. Alex lifts up his blanket to wrap it around Nick as well. 

“No,” Alex replies, indignant, “I just thought it might be nice, I’ve only used this… once so far and I’m assuming that it’ll get warmer soon, so I figured it might be a good time for it, considering that I froze my ass off when I walked Byron.”

Nick hums and hands Alex the paper bag he’s been carrying around for the past two hours. “Here.”

“What’s that?” Alex asks. He opens the bag and peers inside.

Nick shrugs. “It’s a really big cookie.”

“You got me… a really big cookie?”

“I don’t know, I saw it and I thought you might like it. You don’t have to eat it if you don’t want it.” Nick isn’t a very romantic person, and he’s very well aware of that. Alex doesn’t usually _want_ presents, so Nick has taken to bringing stuff for Byron, because Alex won’t complain about that. Hockey stuff is mostly all right, but Nick has to find the right time for that. Food is usually okay, too. So he saw that cookie earlier and bought it on a whim, just because it made him think of Alex. Maybe that was stupid.

“Nicky,” Alex says, “what kind of crisis are you having right now?”

Nick shakes his head.

Alex tries to stare him down for a few more seconds, but then pulls the cookie out of the bag. “Shit, it’s humongous.”

“Right?”

“You wanna share it?” Alex asks and breaks it in half before Nick has even answered.

Byron is clearly interested as well, but Alex shoos him away and Byron curls up on his cushion on the other side of the room, sulking quietly.

“Aw,” Nick says.

“You can give him a treat later.”

“Good,” Nick says and takes a bite of his half of the cookie. “He deserves one.”

Alex huffs and then wordlessly devours his cookie.

“Fire’s nice,” Nick mumbles. He leans against Alex, because he doesn’t get to sit next to him a lot these days. Their schedules are messy and Nick has been gone a lot, and the team Alex is coaching has road games, too, so they have to take advantage of every second they get together. I’ll be easier in the summer, Nick keeps telling himself that, but the summer is ages away.

Alex’s fingers sneak into his hair and he leans over to kiss the top of Nick’s head. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just…” Nick sighs.

“Tired?”

Nick shrugs. “Not really.” He took a nap before he came over, so he wouldn’t fall asleep on Alex again like he did after the game yesterday. He’s frustrated with himself, with their performance in the last few games, with how little time he has for Alex.

Alex keeps running his fingers through Nick’s hair while he finishes his cookie. “What do you wanna do tonight? Movie? Game?”

Instead of replying, Nick turns his head to kiss Alex’s temple. And his cheek. He nudges Alex’s jaw with his nose.

“Oh,” Alex says with a small smile and tilts his head. Nick starts kissing his neck and Alex’s fingers tighten in his hair. “ _Okay_.”

Nick hums and nips at Alex’s skin.

“Nick,” Alex says, and he was probably going for stern, but it comes out at somewhat amused, “don’t…”

Nick laughs. “Sorry.”

“Here,” Alex says and grabs Nick’s shirt to pull him against him. He kisses him, one hand still holding on to Nick’s shirt, the other one curled around the back of his neck, carefully avoiding the cut on Nick’s cheek. Last night’s game got a little chippy.

Nick kisses him back, maybe with a little too much enthusiasm, and they lose their blanket. Nick gently pushes him down onto the soft carpet in front of the fireplace and Alex lets out a surprised huff. His hands are on Nick’s sides a moment later, pulling him down against him and then slipping under Nick’s shirt.

They kiss for a while, not in a hurry to take this anywhere, the fire crackling happily. Nick could spend the entire evening doing just this, but then Alex’s hand slips under the waistband of his sweatpants and Nick has to rethink his position on just kissing for the rest of the evening.

He tugs at Alex’s shirt, fingers dragging over smooth skin, encountering a scar here and there, and Alex lets his head fall back with a soft sigh.

When something jingles at the other side of the room, Nick freezes.

Alex looks up with a frown. “What…”

“Okay, maybe this is weird, but…” Nick sits back and looks over at Byron, who wags his tail when he realizes that they’re paying attention to him.

Alex sits up as well. His hair is already a mess, curls sticking up at odd angles.

“I…” Nick chews on his bottom lip. “He’s watching.”

For a moment, Alex is dead quiet. Then he bursts out laughing.

Nick gives him a half-hearted shove. “It’s not funny.”

“It is,” Alex says, his voice weirdly high-pitched.

Byron, clearly interested now that Alex seems to be having such a great time, comes over to them, tail wagging, circling around them, and eventually settling down with his head on Alex’s thigh.

“You wanna go upstairs?” Alex asks.

“Later,” Nick replies and pulls at their blanket to wrap it back around them.


	4. Ashley & Byron, a fateful meeting

Ashley is extremely busy minding her own business and is definitely not listening to their neighbor Hannah chewing out her son for conducting experiments with their microwave while she was at work. “Snickers do not go in the microwave, Nathaniel,” Ashley would hear her shout if she was paying attention.

She’s not, of course. She’s reading. It’s her day off and Jamie is still at school, so she decided to sit on the back porch, ignoring that it needs some serious work and that it’s probably rotting away right under her butt. She has a glass of iced tea and a book she’s been meaning to read for months and life is good. Jamie will come home soon and he’ll bring food from the taco truck, which will make life even better.

Hannah seems to be done yelling, or so Ashley thinks until, “What is mixed in with this chocolate? Tomato sauce? Have you lost your goddamned mind?” echoes across the lawn.

Ashley does not find this amusing. Nate is actually a good kid. He once brought Dylan back after he escaped from Ashley’s clutches, holding him very gently, like a baby. Dylan seemed to like it.

Ashley is absolutely still minding her own business when something very cold and very wet touches her foot.

She screams.

Her book goes flying and once the book is gone she has an excellent view of her other neighbor’s golden retriever.

“Byron,” Ashley sighs. “You scared the crap out of me.”

Byron looks like he’s smiling, tongue hanging out of his mouth, tail wagging.

“Buddy, where’d you come from, huh?”

He pads closer, delighted when Ashley scratches his head. She loves Byron and if Jamie wouldn’t murder her in her sleep if she even thought about getting a dog, she’d get one just like him. The cats probably wouldn’t even mind.

“Okay, come on,” Ashley says and stands up. She picks up her book and tosses it back on her chair and makes cooing noises at Byron to get him to follow her down the steps and back around the house. “Time to go home. Adventure’s over.”

Byron only wags his tail.

“Come here, Byron.”

Reluctantly, Byron joins her and follows her around the house and over to his owner’s house. His owner, Mrs. Miller, is coming sprinting out of the house when Ashley walks up her driveway with Byron in tow.

“Byron, there you are,” Mrs. Miller says, a little out of breath. “Oh, Ashley, thank you so much for bringing him back. I left the backdoor open for two minutes.” She reaches down to pet him. “But, good boy, Byron, you came back, right? With a little help. Let’s give Ashley a slice of cherry cake, hm? To say thank you?”

“Oh, no need.”

“Please, I have way too much. I’ll give you a slice for Jamie, too. Will you tell him that I won’t need him to mow the lawn anymore? Although whoever moves in might not mind his generosity.”

“You’re moving away?” Ashley asks. It’s a real bummer, because there’s no way in hell that they’ll get neighbors that are as chill as Mrs. Miller.

“Yes, it’s back to California for me,” Mrs. Miller says. It’s closer to my daughter and I’ve been offered a position at a university there. I’ll be keeping the house. Did you know that I grew up here? My parents bought this place way back in the day.”

“I didn’t. So you’ll be renting it out?”

“That’s the plan, dear.”

“Well, we’ll miss you here,” Ashley says. Her and her cakes. “And Byron, of course.”

“Oh,” Mrs. Miller says, looking down at Byron, suddenly sad. “He won’t be coming with me, I’m afraid. My daughter’s allergic to dogs and I’ll be staying with her for a while.”

“What’s going to happen to him, then?”

“I’m trying to find a place for him, but no luck so far. I suppose your kitties wouldn’t welcome him with open arms?”

“Oh, they wouldn’t mind. Jamie would, though.”

“Well, dear, if you hear of anyone in need of a friend, do let me know,” Mrs. Miller says. “Wait here, I’ll get that cake for you.”

Byron follows Mrs. Miller into the house, tail swishing.

Ashley already knows that she’ll take in Byron if Mrs. Miller doesn’t find anyone else, because she doesn’t want that beautiful boy to spend even just a second in a shelter, but that might not even be necessary. She does know someone in need of a friend.

Alex came back from college a few weeks ago and he seems to be doing okay – he showed her his diploma, looking all proud, but Ashley could tell that it wasn’t all peachy. He’s started to work at the rink, so Ashley sees him quite a bit, and he’s always polite, always takes the time to talk to her, but he doesn’t smile so much anymore and when they last talked, it sounded like Alex wasn’t really getting along with his parents. His dad will be leaving for a coaching position in Seattle soon, but his mom might stick around for a little while longer, and Alex didn’t seem to be too delighted about it.

Ashley doesn’t want to meddle too much, of course, but she does try to be a good friend and she can’t help but wonder if Alex might need something new to shake up his life a little bit.  


	5. Alex & Byron (& Ashley), sometimes the universe wants you to have a dog

“I don’t know, Ash,” Alex says for what must be the twentieth time.

Ashley sidled up to him a few minutes ago, about half an hour before her first skating lesson of the day. She was early. Suspiciously early. About ten seconds later, Alex found out why.

Apparently Ashley’s neighbor is moving away and doesn’t know what to do with her dog and for some reason Ashley thinks that he could adopt that dog. Which is ridiculous, because when you have a dog you have to feed him and walk him and take him to the vet, and Alex barely even remembers to feed himself sometimes, so he likely isn’t the right person for this.

“I’d just feel so bad if she had to put him in a shelter,” Ashley says. Her eyes are huge and Alex is afraid that she might start to cry. “And you live in a big house and you could take him to the rink and you wouldn’t have to pay any adoption fees and–”

“I can’t just adopt a dog.”

“No, obviously you’d have to come meet him first.”

Alex sighs.

“He’s really cute.”

“So you’ve said.”

“The cutest ever, I swear.”

They keep coming back to this, but since Alex is so terrible at taking care of himself, he doesn’t really trust himself to take care of anyone else.

“Are you talking about me?” Finn asks as he strides into the equipment room.

“No, we’re talking about Byron.”

“That is somehow both the right and the wrong answer,” Finn says. With a groan, he leans his head on Alex’s shoulder. “I’m so tired, can you just teach the tiny whiney babies how to skate? I need another coffee, but if I drink another coffee, I’ll probably die.”

“No,” Alex says. He was putting new laces into rental skates and he’d very much like to get back to that. “Hey, do you wanna adopt a dog?”

“A dog?”

“Byron. Ashley says his owner is moving away and can’t take him.”

“Oh nooo, the poor darling,” Finn says, and Alex isn’t sure if he means Byron or his owner. “Alex.”

“No, come on, I can’t–”

“You used to have a dog, right? So you already know how to take care of them,” Finn says. “Bring some joy into our cold, dark lives.”

“At least come over and meet him,” Ashley says.

“I have to talk to my parents about it. Or my mom, at the very least.”

Probably wouldn’t matter to his dad, he’s in Seattle right now to find a place to live for next season and he’ll barely be around. Which is… Well, Alex is trying not to be happy because his dad is leaving town, but he also isn’t particularly sad about it.

Ashley smiles. “Yeah, you do that.”

“What kind of party is this, then?” Patty asks when he sticks his head into the equipment room. “Not keeping Alex from doing his work, are ya?”

“We would never,” Finn says primly and stalks away.

“Never,” Ashley adds with feeling and winks at Alex before she leaves.

Alex shakes his head and goes back to putting laces into rental skates. He can hear Patty’s soft laugh as he leaves the equipment room as well.

When Alex gets home, he doesn’t talk to his mom about the dog, because the first thing she says to him is, “How are you doing, sweetie?” in _that_ voice and when she uses _that_ voice, Alex wants to disappear and never speak to anyone ever again. Anyway, he could probably get away with just bringing home a dog without telling anyone about it first, at least as long as his mom still uses _that_ voice when she talks to him.

It’s been three years since the accident, but his mom still seems to be scared that he has some kind of breakdown coming, just because he isn’t skipping through fields of flowers and singing songs about how happy he is. He knows he shouldn’t get mad about how much she cares about him, but he can’t help it sometimes.

Even though he does find himself looking for pictures of the dog his parents gave him for his fifth birthday the same night, Alex almost forgets about the thing with the dog. Until, two days later, Ashley bursts into the office when it’s time for both of them to head home and says, “Wanna come over for dinner and meet Byron?”

Technically, he could, but he’s already coming up with reasons why he doesn’t have time.

 “I’ll ask Jamie to pick up some tacos at the truck,” Ashley says, because she knows that Alex won’t say know to truck tacos.

“Okay, but I can’t–”

“Don’t worry, I’ll kick your ass out the door before nine,” Ashley says and strides away, clearly expecting Alex to follow her.

He does, with reluctance, and drives to Ashley’s house. He gets there right after her and she immediately drags him to the house next door and punches the doorbell with unbridled excitement.

The door opens a moment later and they’re greeted by a middle-aged woman in a flowery apron and a golden retriever that’s clearly delighted to see them. Ashley was right, he’s a cute dog, with big brown eyes and soft, floppy ears.

“Ashley,” Mrs. Miller says, “so lovely to see you.”

“Mrs. Miller, this is my friend Alex who said he’d like to meet Byron,” Ashley says.

Alex doesn’t protest, even though Ashley basically talked him into this. He could have just said no to coming over. Actually, he’s not entirely sure why he didn’t. There’s probably someone else out there who’d give this dog a much better home and who’s much more capable of taking care of another living being.

“Oh, Alex, hello,” Mrs. Miller says and shakes his hand. “You’re one of the Goldman kids?”

There is in fact only one Goldman kid and it’s him, but Alex nods anyway. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Miller,” Alex says.

“Well, you say hello to Byron and see if you get along,” Mrs. Miller says. “Breaks my heart that I can’t take him. I’ll be just inside if you have any questions.”

Once she’s disappeared back into the house and they’re on their own on the front steps with Byron sniffling Alex’s hand, Alex turns to Ashley. “What exactly did you tell her?” Alex whispers.

“Just that I told a friend that she can’t take the dog and that the friend said he’d like to meet him, I swear.”

“I never even said that,” Alex hisses.

Ashley shrugs. “And yet here you are.”

Alex sighs and sits down on the steps to pet Byron. “Hey, buddy.” Byron’s tail goes into overdrive when Alex keeps petting him and he eventually plops down next to him to put his head on Alex’s thigh. “Now that’s just unfair.”

“Isn’t he _so_ cute?” Ashley says.

“He is.”

“Wouldn’t it be so sad if she had to put him in a…” Ashley raises her eyebrows, “ _you-know-what_.”

Alex only glares up at her.

“He’s the best boy.”

Byron perks up.

“Yes, you. You’re the best boy,” Ashley coos. “And you’d be such a good friend for Alex. You’d be so happy with him. He has such a big backyard.”

They do have a big backyard.

And Alex liked having a dog when he was a kid. They played in the backyard all the time and Alex would throw a ball for him and then Noodle would lose the ball and bring him back a stick instead. Noodle was a great dog, they had him for twelve years, almost until Alex left for college.

“Do you think…”

Ashley grins. “Yeah?”

Alex tries very hard to keep glaring, because this is all her fault, but she knows that he’s getting weaker by the second. “Do you think people at the rink would mind if there was a dog in the office sometimes?”

“Please, people love dogs.”

“Some people are scared of them.”

“We don’t need their business,” Ashley says with a dismissive wave of her hand. “But, seriously, you’re mostly in the front office and if you keep the door closed he can just hang out with you there. I’ve seen people there with their service dogs, too.”

“Not the same thing.”

“You could ask Patty about it. And, I don’t know… I don’t take my cats to the rink, they’re fine on their own.”

“I know,” Alex mutters. Noodle was fine on his own too while Alex was at school and often enough there was nobody else home during the day, especially when his dad was away with the team and his mom was in New York City for work.

In all honesty, Alex is just looking for reasons why he can’t adopt this dog and he can’t come up with any good ones. He can afford a dog and he definitely has enough room for a dog and Byron seems to really like him.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

He spends a few more minutes scratching Byron’s ears, pretending that he didn’t make up his mind the second he saw Byron’s head peeking out the door, then he says, “Fine.”

“You’ll take him?”

“I mean, I wanna talk to Mrs. Miller about him and I’m sure she’ll want to talk to me, but…”

Ashley squeals and claps her hands and does a little dance. “You won’t regret this, I promise.”

The funny thing is that she’s probably right.


	6. Alex/Nick, Summer 2018

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has explicit content. Please only read this if you're an adult and willing to read adult content.

The heat is almost unbearable today.

The rink is air-conditioned, but as soon as Alex sets foot outside after his shift, beads of sweat are starting to run down the back of his neck, soaking into his shirt. He gets into the Mustang with a sigh and rolls down the windows. Byron’s in the back, clearly unhappy in this weather. Even though the drive to Nick’s house is a short one, Alex can’t wait to get out of the car. It’s been unbearably humid for the past couple of days and the air is still unpleasantly warm as it whips through the windows.

Alex is glad that he doesn’t have the sun burning down on his car anymore once he pulls into Nick’s garage, into the spot that’s technically Connor’s now. Connor is off to a wedding this weekend, though, so he won’t mind if Alex steals it.

They only have a few more days of July left. A few more days until Alex is done at the rink and he’ll start going to East Harbor daily and Finn will take over as manager. It’s starting to feel like this summer is just passing them by in the blink of an eye. In some ways, Alex is excited for what’s to come once August rolls around, but he’ll miss days like this one, going to Nick’s house after work, seeing him almost every single day, waking up with Nick still in bed with him.

Emily greets him when Alex slips into the house through the garage door. Byron ignores her completely and pads away to plop down right on top of an air conditioning vent, probably under the kitchen table. It’s his favorite spot.

The house is quiet, no trace of Nick, but Alex already knows where to find him.

He walks into the living room and he can see Nick through the screen doors, sitting by the pool, his feet dangling into the water, a tattered book and a bottle of beer next to him. They’re probably going to order food tonight. Alex definitely isn’t cooking and Nick looks like he’s having a well-deserved lazy Sunday.

Alex opens the screen door and makes sure that Emily doesn’t follow him outside.

Nick hears him coming and looks over his shoulder, his smile soft. He probably spent all day out here after he was at the rink this morning. His hair is wet, like he jumped into the pool not too long ago, little droplets of water still clinging to his back. Alex wants to kiss every single freckle on his shoulders, but that’s nothing new.

“Hey,” Alex says and kneels down behind him and bends his head down to actually kiss Nick’s shoulder, just because he can. His skin is warm from the sun.

Nick reaches up and buries his fingers in Alex’s hair. “Hey,” he says and it almost sounds breathless. He tugs at Alex’s hair and the air rushes out of Alex’s lungs in a sharp gasp.

“Hey, what’s gotten into you?” Alex says and tilts his head to kiss Nick’s cheek.

“I missed you.”

“You saw me this morning.”

“Yeah, for half an hour. And then you were gone all day,” Nick says. He still has a tight grip on Alex’s hair and it doesn’t seem like he’s inclined to let go.

Alex smiles and tilts his head down as far as he can to kiss Nick’s shoulder one more time and then makes his way over to his neck. He kneels down properly so he’s not balanced on his feet anymore and runs his fingers down Nick’s side. He can feel Nick shiver under his fingertips.

Nick lets his head fall back against Alex’s shoulder with a moan when Alex gently nips at his skin.

“Nick,” Alex says. He presses another kiss to Nick’s neck. “Nicky.”

“Yeah?”

“You wanna go in?” Nick’s fence and the trees surrounding his property are definitely high enough to give him privacy, but this is when they usually take things inside. Except for that one time when they ended up in the jacuzzi in the middle of the night.

Nick sucks in a deep breath, stays very still for a long moment and then lets go of Alex. “Yeah, let’s… yeah. Okay.” He scrambles to his feet and pulls Alex with him, wrangling with the screen door, nudging Alex over the threshold.

“What–” Alex doesn’t get to finish his question. Nick’s hands are on his sides as soon as he’s shoved the screen door shut again and he pushes him against the closest stretch of wall, right beside the door, and then Alex can’t really remember what he was going to ask in the first place.

A cat toy squeaks when Alex steps on it and he quickly kicks it out of the way. Since Emily doesn’t chase after it, it’s safe to assume that they’re alone.

“Off,” Nick says and pulls at Alex’s shirt.

“Whatever you say,” Alex mutters and pulls off his shirt while Nick gets his pants out of the way. And, really, Nick is always enthusiastic, but this is different. “What did I do?”

“This morning…” Nick only says and then kisses him hard.

Alex has no idea what he did this morning and maybe now is not the right time to find out. He chases Nick’s lips when he tries to pull away, hands on Nick’s back, keeping him close. Nick is still wearing his ridiculous crab trunks, but Alex can feel how hard he is against his thigh.

Nick pulls at Alex’s boxers, and then suddenly his lips aren’t on Alex’s skin anymore.

Alex didn’t even realize that he’d closed his eyes. He blinks and looks down to find Nick on his knees with the most innocent smile on his face. Alex should be used to this by now – it’s that feeling he gets whenever he realizes that he’s the only person in the world who gets to see Nick like this.

“You okay?” Nick asks.

Alex somehow manages to say, “Yeah.” Nick probably asked because of Alex’s knee, not because he saw that Alex was experiencing several feelings at once and had them written all over his face.

Nick’s smile turns into something wicked and he leans forward to nuzzle at the inside of Alex’s thigh. Alex takes a deep breath and closes his eyes again. He wants to watch, but he also _can’t_ watch, because it feels too good already and if he watches, he’ll probably pass the fuck out.

Nick has no idea what the hell he’s doing, really, he just does whatever the fuck he wants and it works somehow. And sometimes Nick will hover over Alex and say, “Tell me what you want me to do,” because Nick is very, very eager to learn, particularly now that they have more time, sometimes entire days, and those days will always be Alex’s favorite. With Nick it’s always too much of everything, and somehow it’s still always just right, just what Alex wants, what he needs.

At first, Nick was so reluctant – reluctant to touch Alex, reluctant to say what he wanted, reluctant to talk about sex.

Not anymore.

A hint of teeth against Alex’s thigh makes his breath hitch, and then Nick takes him into mouth, at which point Alex is already a goner.

Nick’s fingers curl around his wrist and he tugs until Alex’s fingers are in his hair. Alex pulls gently at first and it earns him an appreciative hum from Nick, then Alex pulls harder and Nick groans. Alex forces his eyes to open and blinks down at Nick, who looks so focused that Alex would find it funny if he wasn’t about to lose his mind.

“You’re so beautiful,” Alex says. He has no idea where that came from, but it’s true and Nick should know how beautiful he is when he’s on his knees.

Nick’s eyelids flutter and he looks up at Alex and he sees what Nick meant when he said that he didn’t know that you could feel so many things for just one person. He gets it, he really does.

Alex runs his fingers through Nick’s hair, trying to get it out of his face, but he’s probably just making even more of a mess of it. The first time they did this, Alex had no idea where he was allowed put his hands, but now he knows exactly what Nick wants and tugs a little harder when he’s close. Nick hums, takes him deeper, fingernails digging into Alex’s thighs. When Alex comes and Nick pulls away, breathless, Nick’s hair is all over the place, sticking to his temples and hanging into his eyes. He’s an absolute mess and Alex has barely even touched him.

Nick smiles, pleased with himself. Then he gives Alex’s hand a tug and that’s all the invitation Alex needs to join him on the floor.

“Gimme a minute,” Alex says and leans back against the wall.

Nick hums and leans in to kiss him. Alex gives himself a minute to just kiss him back, touch him, skin still warm despite the cool air in the house, then he reaches between them and pulls Nick’s trunks out of the way and jerks him off roughly. Nick tries to keep kissing him but he eventually ends up with his forehead pressed against Alex’s shoulder, moaning against his skin as he comes.

Alex gently pats Nick’s sweaty hair and kisses his temple. They stay on the floor together, Nick in Alex’s lap, both of them a sticky, sweaty mess.

“We need to get up,” Alex mumbles. Of all the places to have sex, this isn’t exactly the most convenient one. It’s not like Connor is going to come marching in through the door, because he won’t be back until tomorrow, but there’s a dog and a cat to consider and they’re both naked. On the floor.

“Yeah,” Nick says, but doesn’t move.

Alex will try again in a minute or two. “Okay,” he says, “tell me what I did this morning.”

“Oh,” Nick says. “When you skated with me this morning and we did stick-handling drills–”

Alex can’t help it, he starts laughing, because he sees where this is going. “That’s why… Seriously?”

“It was amazing. You’re so fast and so– Alex, stop laughing.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex says and kisses the top of Nick’s head. “I’m glad you think my stick-handling is that impressive.”

Nick snuggles against him. “Teach me your ways.”

“Okay, but first we need to get up.”

“Not yet.”

“Nicky, come on, we’re–”

It’s the sound of Byron’s paws on the hardwood floor that has Nick darting upright, quickly snatching his damp trunks off the floor.

“Okay, you win,” Nick says and darts off towards the stairs.

Alex gathers up his clothes a little more slowly and follows Nick with a grin.

 


	7. Alex/Nick, December 2018

Nick’s car is already in the driveway when Alex parks his own. Nick sent him a text after practice earlier to tell him that he’d run a few errands and buy some food for dinner before he’d head to Alex’s place. Sometimes it feels like Nick lives here. Then Alex catches himself wishing he actually did.

Then he quickly stops himself from going any further down that road, because he might start asking himself why he doesn’t just ask Nick to move in with him. He knows Nick would say no. Too much of a risk. And even if they were normal people, with normal lives, and could do whatever the hell they wanted, it would probably be too soon to even consider asking questions like that.

Snow is gently drifting down on Alex as he walks to the front door with Byron at his heels. He’s glad that Nick took care of the grocery shopping, because that way he could skip that hell on the way home from East Harbor.

The lights are on in the house, but when Alex checks the living room and the kitchen, Nick is nowhere to be found. Alex peers into the fridge and finds it a lot fuller than it was this morning. There’s a huge bag of shredded mozzarella right in the middle. Alex grins.

“Nicky?” Alex calls.

He thought he’d come home and find Nick watching a game on TV. Since there’s no answer, Alex makes his way up the stairs, because if Nick isn’t downstairs watching a game, he might be upstairs watching a game. As it turns out, Nick really is upstairs, but instead of watching a game, he’s snoring quietly in Alex’s bed.

The bedside lamp is on and casts a soft glow on Nick, who’s fast asleep, curled up on his side, with his face pressed into Alex’s pillow, hair in his face. He’s wearing one of Alex’s shirts.

Alex sighs. He can’t wake him up, can he?

Carefully, Alex climbs into bed with him, the mattress only shaking the tiniest bit when he lies down next to Nick. For him, it’s way too late for a nap. He won’t be able to sleep tonight when he actually tries to go to bed, but he can feel Nick’s warmth even though they’re not even touching and Nick just got back from a nine-day roadie yesterday and they haven’t had a chance to talk, so there’s no way that Alex is going back downstairs on his own.

It’s hard sometimes, with Nick on the road, and with him at East Harbor, but they’re making it work as best as they can.

It takes Alex about a minute to fall asleep with Nick snoring softly into his ear. He wakes up again when Nick bumps into him and hums.

“Hey,” Nick says, his voice soft.

“Hey,” Alex says. Now would be a good time to get out of bed and make dinner and enjoy Nick’s company and talk about what’s been going on in their lives.

An arm snakes around Alex’s waist and a kiss is pressed to his jaw. “Missed you.” Nick noses along the side of Alex’s face. “But you already knew that.”

Alex reaches out without opening his eyes. “Yeah.”

“Hmm…” Nick snuggles closer to him, which means they’re definitely not getting out of bed. “Sorry, I kinda just fell asleep in your bed like a creeper.”

“I literally gave you a key to the house.”

“I also stole your shirt.”

“I saw.”

“Can I keep it?”

“I like that shirt,” Alex mutters. But, yes, Nick can keep it, and he knows that he can keep it.

Nick makes a familiar soft noise that has Alex’s stomach doing a backflip for some reason and plants a quick kiss on Alex’s cheekbone. Another kiss follows, and another, and Alex isn’t sure where exactly Nick is going with this, but if he wants to lie in bed and kiss him all evening, then Alex will be the last person to complain. Who needs to eat anyway?

Alex gets one more kiss, then Nick stills, wiggles a little and burrows back against Alex. It takes Alex a moment to realize that Nick has fallen asleep again. He decides to stay for a few more minutes, just listening to Nick’s even breathing, then he starts to inch away very slowly to take care of dinner. Except Nick’s hand is still on his chest and he grabs a fistful of Alex’s shirt just when he’s about to escape.

“What about dinner, Nicky?” Alex whispers.

Nick still doesn’t let go of his shirt and tugs Alex closer. “Don’t leave.”

“But–”

“Pizza,” Nick mumbles. “Order pizza.”

“That’s a compelling argument,” Alex says. “But I sorta still need to get up because–”

“Use my phone.”

Alex glances at the bedside table where Nick has left his phone and wallet and keys in a neat pile. “Okay.”

“My wallet, too.”

“I can pay for the pizza, Nicky.”

“No,” Nick grumbles and tucks his head into the crook of Alex’s neck with a huff, like the thought of Alex paying for anything offends him deeply. It actually does. They’ve had too many arguments about who should be paying for dinner.

Alex isn’t in the mood to argue tonight, though. He absent-mindedly scratches the back of Nick’s neck as he reaches for his phone. “What are we gonna do when the pizza gets here, huh?”

“’m not getting up,” Nick says.

Alex snorts. “Yeah, I figured.”


	8. Connor & Shane, December 2018

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Connor's POV of Shane's Hartford visit

Connor and Shane are in touch so much during the season that Connor sometimes forgets that he misses him. But once he actually has Shane in his car and they’re talking, he realizes that he’s actually been missing him a lot.

He can make jokes with Shane that Nick would roll his eyes at. Not that Nick isn’t funny sometimes, not that Connor doesn’t fucking love the guy, not that he wouldn’t protect him at all costs, but Shane is his best friend. That’s just how it is and it’s not going to change.

He’s taking Shane back to Cedar Mills at Shane’s request. He gets it. Connor can talk about Nessie in public, but Shane can’t talk about whatever he wants to talk about, not when people might be listening. In all honesty, Connor is kinda worried about Shane. He still has Robbie, but it always sounds like he’s so fucking lonely and Shane’s clearly having issues with Gunner, which is hardly surprising, because everyone knows that Gunner has been rubbing guys the wrong way all over the league.

So Connor goes and picks Shane up at the Hawks’ team hotel after he’s had lunch with Nessie – they haven’t seen each other in nearly three weeks, but Nessie gets that Shane is only here this one time. Connor loves that about her. And he’ll come to her place after the game tomorrow. It’s all good.

Connor asked Nick if he could go and hang out with Alex, even though it wouldn’t really matter if Nick heard any of the stuff that Shane usually tells him. They’re technically in the same boat. But he won’t get involved. Nick doesn’t want anyone else to know, not yet, maybe not ever. Connor could put him in touch with Shane, he offered, but if that’s not what Nick wants, he won’t push it.

So Nick will be out of the house.

Except when Connor pulls into the garage, Alex’s car is in the driveway and Nick’s is in the garage. Which means there’s a good chance that both of them are in the house and aren’t expecting Connor back just yet. There’s no way he can keep Shane out of the house, but he still walks very slowly, with a faint hope that Alex and Nick will walk out through the front door while he and Shane walk in through the back door.

As soon as he opens the door, Byron’s nose appears, tail thumping against the wall in excitement. “Hey, bud,” he says.

“Is that your old roommate’s dog?” Shane asks.

“Uh, yeah.”

And his old roommate is somewhere in the house, in fact he can hear him talking down the hall, but Shane is pretty distracted by Byron, so maybe he doesn’t hear it when Alex says, “Nicky, for fuck’s sake, I don’t care about your shirt, we’re not going to a four-star restaurant, you look hot in anyth–”

“Hey, I’m back,” Connor practically yells, because Alex probably didn’t hear them come in and this has the potential to get really awkward really quickly.

Alex comes down the hall, shooting Connor a panicked look that quickly disappears when he says, “Hey, we’re on our way out. If Nick ever stops obsessing over his outfit. We’re gonna get burgers, I don’t know what he needs to look pretty for.”

It’s a good save.

Shane clearly hasn’t noticed that anything’s off and is mostly concerned with whether or not Byron can stay and hang out with them. Alex lets him stay and says he’ll pick him up when he drops off Nick, even though Connor is pretty sure that Alex was planning on taking both his dog and his boy home with him tonight.

Nick joins them a moment later, definitely dressed for a date, but Shane wouldn’t know that because he doesn’t know what Nick looks like when he’s not dressed for a date.

Once they’ve headed out, it takes Shane about five seconds to mention Rosie. They hung out in New York. And Shane is sitting here and telling Connor that he has no feelings for Rosie whatsoever, like Connor has, like, two braincells and doesn’t know what Shane’s face looks like when he’s talking about a guy he has a crush on.

He tickles it out of Shane eventually, even though Shane spends quite some time pretending that it’s all about Rosie’s dogs. All Connor has to do is wait a few minutes, though.

Shane sighs deeply. “Okay, yeah, you were right, Brady is kinda cute, too.”

Rosie is a great guy. But he’s also a hockey player and Shane has this thing about hockey players where liking them isn’t even on the table, because what if they end up on the same team? Shane once spent an entire evening – drunk on wine – telling Connor about all the things that could go wrong if he fell in love with another player. Connor got his point, but Shane’s face gets all red when he mentions Rosie, so he’s clearly in too deep already.

“He’s a hockey player,” Shane says, as predicted. “Not gonna happen. And, anyway… Brady is like… really straight.”

The thing is… Shane can’t actually know that, he just assumes that every single hockey player is the straightest bro alive. Maybe it’s self-preservation. It only takes Shane a minute to change the topic.

They talk about Nessie and Connor wonders if he should tell Shane about the ring, but it’s too early for him to even have the ring, honestly, it’s his best kept secret and he’s not ready to tell anyone about it just yet. Not for a while. But Shane will definitely be the first to know.

They circle back to Shane and his roommate situation. He has such a hard time trusting people, because he has so much more to lose than most of the other guys in the league. He looks fucking miserable and there’s nothing Connor can do, he can’t pack his bags and go back to Denver, but he can give Shane a hug.

They sit on the couch together for a while, Connor hugging Shane tightly. Shane lets out a soft breath and Connor doesn’t let go of him until Shane says, “I’m ready to order food now.”

Connor gets all the takeout menus that he and Nick have accumulated and he lets Shane pick dinner. They end up ordering Chinese, way more than they need, but having leftovers will make Nick happy. They settle on the Ravens game and Shane grumbles about Elliot Cowell, and then he grumbles about the Knights’ entire roster. Both teams are scary good this season, but the Knights are playing the second half of back-to-back games tonight, so their backup is in goal and the Ravens are lighting them on fire.

Emily joins them, sitting down next to Shane to watch the game with them. She does that sometimes. Like she’s a hockey fan, too.

Connor snaps a picture, because he knows Shane will want it later. He does it just in time, because Emily and Byron both take off down the hallway when they hear the garage door. Alex and Nick must be back, but they take their sweet time actually coming into the house. They’re probably making out in the garage against the recycling bin.

Connor has totally caught them doing that before and he chirped Nick about it for days. Only at home, obviously.

Alex comes in, peering at the TV, his eyes going wide. “Oh, shit. Cowell’s gonna win the Rocket Richard, I’m calling it now.” He gently pats Nick’s back. “Sorry, Nicky.”

Connor has tried calling him Nicky, too. It didn’t go over well. Alex is the only one who’s allowed to do that.

Nick laughs and leans a little into Alex. He probably doesn’t realize that he’s doing it, nobody else would even pick up on it. Shane probably didn’t notice. Connor’s just glad that Nick has someone he feels so comfortable around.

Alex grins. “Now that I’ve verbally ruined your entire season, I’m gonna head out. Good to see you, Shane.”

“Thanks for letting us borrow your dog,” Shane says.

“Sure, no worries, he loves hanging out here,” Alex says. He doesn’t mention that he usually hangs out here with Byron. “Bye, guys.”

Alex is already down the hall when Nick clears his throat, says, “Sorry, I, uh… I think I forgot something in his car,” and then he’s gone, too.

Shane is absent-mindedly scratching Emily’s head, oblivious to Nick tripping all over himself to find a terrible excuse to follow Alex. And make out with him in the garage a little more.

This is ridiculous. Everyone Connor knows is fucking ridiculous. It’s also highly entertaining, but Nick probably thinks that he’s being really subtle and, being a good friend, Connor should probably tell him that he’s really not.

Nick doesn’t hang out with them after Alex is gone, he just picks up Emily and they head upstairs. It’s good that Shane isn’t looking, because Nick’s hair is a mess and his shirt is wrinkled in the back like somebody was gripping it.

Connor tries his hardest not to laugh.

When the Ravens have murdered the Knights – not even the Knights’ starter coming in could save them – they switch to the Sailors game that’s just now starting, but Connor eventually has to take Shane back to his hotel. They’ll see each other again in a couple of months when the Cardinals are in Denver, but that seems ages away.

He hugs Shane extra tight when he drops him off.

When he gets back home, Alex’s car is back in the driveway and Byron greets Connor in the hallway. When he wanders into the kitchen, there’s Nick and Alex, Nick sitting on the counter, Alex leaning against him, both of them digging into takeout containers.

“I knew you guys would be happy about leftovers,” Connor says. “Sorry about all the…” He waves his hands to explain the messy back and forth he caused with Shane.

“No worries,” Alex says. “Nick only complained a little bit that I had to take him back.”

“I didn’t complain,” Nick says.

“Uh-huh,” Alex says and stuffs a cold spring roll into Nick’s mouth.

“I didn’t,” Nick says around the spring roll.

Alex laughs and pulls him closer for a second, just to kiss Nick’s temple, before he goes back to eating his cold sesame noodles.

Byron is sitting at his feet, patiently waiting for something to drop. Connor takes pity and grabs a treat for him.

“Stop spoiling my dog,” Alex grumbles.

Connor flips him off. “He’s been such a good boy.”

Alex shakes his head at him.

“I’m gonna go to bed,” Connor says, but stays right where he is. “By the way, you guys aren’t subtle at all.”

Nick perks up at that, looking slightly panicked.

“No, we are, it’s just that you know that Nick followed me to make out with me, but it’s not like anyone else has that background knowledge,” Alex says. “It’s just because you’re traumatized because you walked in on us.”

“Did Shane say anything?” Nick asks.

“No, but…” Connor shrugs. “I noticed, s’all.”

“I’ll never kiss you again, I promise,” Alex says to Nick.

“Hey,” Nick says.

Alex laughs and kisses him.

Connor leaves them to it. Maybe Alex is right. It didn’t seem like Shane noticed anything. And if he did, he wouldn’t have– No, he totally would have said something, but he didn’t, so they have nothing to worry about.

As he walks up the stairs, he can still hear the two of them laughing.


	9. Alex/Nick, September 2018

Connor and Nick throw a preseason barbecue for their team. Alex suspects that it’s mostly Connor’s doing, but since he and Nick are living together now, Nick involuntarily gets pulled into it. He basically begs Alex to come by when he’s back from work, but it’s a party for the team and Alex’s presence would be highly suspicious.

So he hangs out at home with Byron in the evening, watching a movie, barely paying attention because Nick keeps texting him. His boys have an afternoon practice tomorrow, so Alex doesn’t need to head to East Harbor at the crack of dawn, which is why he’s still awake when Nick texts him after an hour of silence – _all the guys are gone, do you wanna come over?_

It’s not terribly late, so Alex gets his ass off the couch and drives over to Nick’s place with Byron in the trunk. When he gets there, Nick and Connor are still cleaning up in the backyard.

“Hey,” Connor says and drops his trash bag to pet Byron. “Hey, cutie pie.”

“You came,” Nick says.

“Yeah, I also replied to your text, but…” Alex shrugs. Nick is holding four trash bags, so Alex isn’t surprised that he hasn’t been checking his phone. “Here, I can take some of these.” He plucks two of the trash bags from Nick’s hands.

They duck into the house and Alex follows Nick into the garage to the trash bins.

“Thanks for coming,” Nick says. “You weren’t sleeping, right?”

“Nah, just hanging out on the couch.”

“I would have come to yours, but I would have felt bad if I hadn’t helped clean up.”

“Hey, don’t worry,” Alex says and opens up the trash bin. They both drop their bags in the bin and then Alex reaches for Nick, because he still looks worried, forehead creased. “What’s wrong?”

“I just…” Nick shrugs and leans back against his car.

Alex leans back against the recycling bin and waits.

“We pretty much had the entire summer together and now the season’s starting and we won’t really…” Nick folds his arms across his chest. “It was nice seeing you so much.”

Alex can’t help but smile. “Yeah, it was nice.” He reaches for Nick and tugs him closer. “But we’ll manage.”

Nick hums and plasters himself against Alex. “I know.”

Alex kisses the top of his head.

Nick sighs softly, fingers tightening in the fabric of Alex’s shirt. He tilts up his head and kisses Alex’s jaw, hand coming up to curl around the back of his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. “Thanks for coming,” Nick says against Alex’s lips.

“You already said that.”

“I know,” Nick mumbles. His fingers sink onto Alex’s hair and he pushes against him, the recycling bin scraping over the concrete.

Alex laughs as they both stumble a little. He won’t lie, having Nick in town for nearly the entire summer was nice, because that way they could at least see each other in the evening when Alex was back from East Harbor. Nick spent more than half the summer sleeping in Alex’s bed. But they’ll still have days like this during the season. Maybe not as many, but Nick will come to his place after games and Alex will wait at Nick’s place when he comes home from roadies. They’ll see each other whenever they can.

“I should go help Connor,” Nick says between kisses, breathless.

Alex would let him go, but Connor can keep going without Nick for another minute or two. His hands slip under Nick’s shirt. Nick has been working hard all summer and he actually talked Alex into working out with him a few times, but Alex can’t keep up with him.

Nick pulls at Alex’s hair as Alex slides his hands down, squeezing Nick’s ass.

They should stop.

Take a deep breath.

Go back in and help Connor.

Alex isn’t sure how to stop at this point, though. He’d rather drag Nick upstairs and get him out of his clothes.

He doesn’t even notice when the door behind them opens. Nick clearly doesn’t either. Not until Connor says, “Shit, sorry, you guys.”

Nick takes a quick step back and bumps into his car. “No worries. Sorry. I’ll, uh…” He looks around. There’s nowhere for them to go, because the closed garage door is on one side and Connor is on the other, holding three trash bags, looking absolutely mortified.

“I’ll just…” Connor fiddles with his trash bags.

“I’ll take those,” Nick says and quickly goes over to him to grab the trash bags.

“Thanks,” Connor mumbles. He disappears back into the house.

Nick doesn’t say anything, he just stands there holding those trash bags.

“You okay?” Alex asks.

Nick nods.

“That was a bit awkward,” Alex mutters.

Nick nods again.

“It’s fine, though,” Alex goes on, because Connor knows they’re together. It’s not like they were trying to hide this from him, except Nick has never kissed him in front of Connor and Alex could tell that he was uncomfortable getting too close to him when Connor was around. And now Connor walked in on them making out in the garage.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Nick echoes. “It’s fine.”

“Do you want me to go talk to him?” Alex says.

“And say what?”

“That sometimes people kiss?”

Nick rolls his eyes. “Alex…”

“I’m just trying to help,” Alex says.

“You had your hands under my shirt.”

“But just a little.” Alex takes the trash bags away from Nick and throws them away, then he grabs Nick by the hand and pulls him back to the door. “Come on.”

Nick sighs and follows Alex into the house. Connor has apparently moved on to putting leftover food into the fridge. Byron is watching him with great interest.

“Everything’s good outside,” Connor says.

“Oh, good, thanks,” Nick replies. He looks freaked out.

Alex nudges his side and Nick squirms away with a huff. “Hey, Waldo, are you traumatized, or…”

Connor looks up from his Tupperware containers and grins. “Nah, don’t worry.”

“Sorry,” Nick says, even though Connor is clearly still alive.

Connor shrugs. “Hey, you live here, it’s not like you have to… hide. That’s not… You’re fine. Seriously. I make out with Nessie all over the place.”

Alex laughs. “Yeah, we didn’t need to know that.”

Connor’s face turns red. “No, not like… Fuck off.”

“I will,” Alex says and tugs at Nick’s hand. “And I’ll take Nick with me.”

Connor grins.

“Wait, I have to help clean up,” Nick says.

“I got it,” Connor says. “You two can go back to the garage and make out.”

Nick groans, turns around and leaves.

“Don’t chirp him too hard,” Alex says.

Connor only smirks, but as Alex turns to follow Nick, he grows serious and says, “Hey, but… seriously… don’t feel like you have to hide, okay?”

Alex nods. “Thanks, Waldo.”


	10. Nadira/Sarah, Ravens game

“I have a surprise for you.”

Sarah has been waiting for this day for weeks. The planning it took was insane, but it’ll be worth it. The hardest part was finding the right day for it, because Sarah has games and practices and she works at the rink and Nadira has a job that practically follows the Cardinals’ schedule.

It’s complicated, but Sarah is all the more proud when she manages to pull this off.

“Oh,” Nadira says, “it’s time for the mystery date.”

Yes. The mystery date. Nadira thinks they’re going out on a date. Which they are, sort of, but it’s more than that. Sarah had to tell her something, so Nadira wouldn’t make plans and the best way to do that was to tell her that she wanted to take her out on a special date.

It’s not exactly their anniversary, but it’s close enough.

“Yeah,” Sarah says. “Time to head out.”

Nadira frowns at her. It’s early in the afternoon, so she has a good reason to frown. “Okay,” he says. “I guess I should get changed?” She’s wearing jeans and a Ravens hoodie.

“No, you’re fine,” Sarah says.

“But it’s a special date, so I should–”

Sarah shakes her head. “You’re perfect, just put on a jacket and a hat.”

“Okay,” Nadira says, glancing at Sarah’s outfit.

She’s also wearing jeans and a hoodie, but she grabs a coat and a hat on the way out the door as well. Nadira doesn’t say anything for the first few minutes of their drive, until Sarah has taken them out of town and Nadira makes a displeased noise.

“What?” Sarah asks.

“Well,” Nadira says and glances over her shoulder, “I thought I had you all figured out, but clearly I was wrong.” She narrows her eyes at Sarah again. “I have a few more ideas, though.”

“Where did you think we were going?” Sarah asks. When she first told Nadira about the mystery date, she told her she’d cancel the entire thing if Nadira kept guessing and expecting Sarah to reply, but now she’s curious.

“I thought you might take me ice skating,” Nadira says.

“We can do that some other time,” Sarah replies.

Nadira hums and turns on the radio, singing along under her breath until another one of her theories clearly turns out to be wrong.

“Where are you taking me?” Nadira says. “I was so sure that we were gonna go that place we went to for our first date but we just went right past that one as well. Also, it’s kinda early for dinner. What is going on?”

“You’ll see,” Sarah says. She assumes that Nadira will catch on soon enough as they get closer.

She gets on the highway.

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Nadira tense up.

“Are we…” Nadira bounces a little in the passenger seat. “How long until we get there?”

“It’ll take a little while, so tell me if you need to pee.”

Nadira laughs. “Are we going to… a big city?”

“Maybe,” Sarah says.

Nadira reaches over to grab Sarah’s thigh. “Did you win the Hamilton lottery?”

Sarah snorts. “Nope, sorry.” There’s no way she could have planned a Hamilton lottery win.

Nadira wiggles in her seat. “There are a lot of cool things going on in New York.”

“Yeah,” Sarah says. “How sure are you that we’re going to New York, though?”

“You’re mean,” Nadira says.

“I’ll remind you that you said that later and you’ll be apologizing for the entire ride back.”

“Sarah,” Nadira whispers.

“Yeah?”

“I… I have another guess, but I’m too scared to say it out loud. And…”

“Yeah?”

“If it’s the thing I think it might be, I don’t have… something I need.”

“I have everything we need,” Sarah says. “Don’t worry.”

“But…” Nadira trails off into a sigh, shakes her head and wiggles in her seat. “No, it’s okay, I trust you, I totally trust you.”

“Good,” Sarah replies.

As they’re getting closer to New York, Nadira grows more and more restless. Sarah knows that Nadira is suspecting that they’re headed to the Ravens game. Which they are. Nadira also wouldn’t say no to a Broadway show, but her one true love are the Ravens. And since Nadira suspects that they’re headed to the Ravens game, she’s probably upset because she’s only wearing her Ravens hoodie and doesn’t have a jersey, except Sarah stole one of Nadira’s Ravens jerseys out of the closet this morning, hoping Nadira wouldn’t notice.

But Nadira doesn’t know that. And Sarah isn’t sure for how much longer she can keep going without telling Nadira.

She has to hand it to her, though, Nadira doesn’t ask any more questions about what they’re doing tonight, she eventually just starts talking about the Cardinals. Sarah talks a little bit about her upcoming games with the Panthers, but when she gets off the highway to park the car, still outside the city, because they’re going to take the Subway in, Nadira eventually groans and says, “Please just tell me where we’re going, it’s killing me.”

“What do you think?” Sarah asks.

“I can’t say it. Because what if that’s not it and you feel bad because I thought your awesome surprise was something else?”

Sarah can’t help but laugh.

“Tell me?”

“Okay,” Sarah says and gets out of the car. “But first you have to come with me.”

Nadira follows her around the car to the trunk.

Sarah has been waiting for this moment for ages and she’s so excited. “Before we get on the Subway,” she says and opens up the trunk, “you have to put on this.” She pulls Nadira’s carefully folded Ravens jersey out of a bag.

“ _Sarah_.”

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t.” Nadira unfolds the jersey with a sigh. “You brought the Cowell jersey. I love you so much.”

“I know he’s your favorite. Except they’re all your favorite, so I’m glad you’re happy with my choice.”

“Fuck, I thought you might take me to the game and I was, like… hoping you’d brought one of these. I can’t go to a game without a jersey.”

She barely even watches a game on TV without a jersey on, so Sarah knew she had to bring one. She’s not an amateur.

“Sarah, you’re the best,” Nadira says and pulls her into a hug. “I love you so much.”

“I know,” Sarah says. She grabs the sign she made during her lunch break at the rink yesterday, Finn looking over her shoulder, telling her that it needs more glitter. “I made this, too.”

Nadira unrolls the sign and snorts. “ _Elliot, can you please give my girlfriend a puck?_ I love that. I mean, I can’t compete with small children who are cute and… did I mention small… but that’s a great sign.”

Sarah can basically feel Nadira vibrating out of her skin as they take the Subway into the city. They get to the arena early enough that there’s only about five people in line in front of them, so Sarah is reasonably sure that they’ll get a good spot at the glass.

She does ask Nadira if she wants to get food first, but Nadira throws her this look of absolute disbelief, like she doesn’t even understand why Sarah asked, because obviously they’re heading straight down to the glass.

“It’s been so long,” Nadira whispers as she presses her hands against the glass. No one’s coming out for warmups for a while, but Nadira has more than enough to say while they wait. “Did you know that back when we drafted Elliot Cowell, there was some controversy about whether the Ravens were going to pick him or David Santana? Can you imagine? And then Elliot would be playing for the Cardinals? Although, look at how good he is… He’s, what, 28? 29? And he’s fucking flying out there. I don’t think the Cardinals could afford him _and_ Yoshi. And, like, have a decent team around them.”

“I’m surprised that you don’t know his birthdate and his star sign,” Sarah says.

“Shhh, don’t make fun of me. I love him.”

“I know,” Sarah says. “I get it, he seems like a great guy.”

“Yeah, he’s only the nicest hockey player I’ve ever met in my entire life.”

Sarah laughs. She knows the story of when Nadira got to cover the Ravens for the first time and she was totally overwhelmed and Elliot Cowell came across her in the hallway and asked her if she was okay. She was okay after that.

When the Ravens come out, Nadira is jumping up and down, banging on the glass, and Sarah just stands next to her and tries to find Elliot Cowell.

He’s over by the center line, talking to the Knights’ goalie, Blake Samuels. Sarah loves watching him play, not that she’d tell Nadira that, because Samuels is technically the enemy, no matter how good he is in goal.

“It’s so funny that they’re friends,” Nadira says, because she obviously has her eyes on Cowell, too. “Poor Blake Samuels, he’s going to cry himself to sleep tonight after we destroy his entire team.”

“He’s reading my sign,” Sarah says.

“Yeah?”

“I think Samuels just pointed at it. Holy shit,” Sarah says. “He totally told him to read it.”

Cowell glances in their direction, then turns back to say something to Samuels and skates over to the bench.

“Aww,” Sarah says. She’s not expecting that they’ll actually get a puck, but it would make her surprise so much more special.

“It’s okay, he always goes to the bench after he stretches. He usually throws a puck or two, but, like, right before he gets off the ice.”

“I’m so glad you have his warmup routine memorized.”

One of the Ravens throws himself against the glass a little further down and the kids behind the glass scream in delight. “That’s Keith Taylor,” Nadira says. “Isn’t he adorable?”

He’s a baby-faced guy, who’s still joking around with the kids behind the glass. “He kinda is,” Sarah says.

“His nickname is Crab. Isn’t that the cutest thing you’ve ever heard?”

Sarah laughs.

“What?”

“Nothing. I just love how much you love them.”

Nadira grins.

Warmups draw to a close and the guys start heading off the ice, but Elliot Cowell is definitely still there. He’s across from them, throwing a puck to a little kid who made a sign for him.

Maybe Finn was right and Sarah should have put more glitter on her sign, because Cowell starts heading back to the bench to get off the ice. It’s fine, they’re still gonna have a good time, it’s not like–

Nadira elbows her in the ribs. “He’s coming over.”

Cowell has picked up another puck and he’s definitely coming their way. Nadira is still hitting her in the side with one hand and waving at Cowell with the other. Cowell definitely makes eye contact with Sarah and she points at Nadira, who’s beaming at Cowell when he throws the puck over the glass for her.

“Thank you,” Nadira shouts, and, “I love you.”

Sarah has no idea if he heard her. Sometimes you can hear what people are shouting, sometimes the music’s too loud, or your thoughts are already in the game and you aren’t really paying attention.

Cowell skates away and Nadira wraps her arms around Sarah. “You’re the best, this was the best surprise, I can’t believe you brought me here and I’m sorry I said you were mean, because this is the best day ever.”

Sarah smiles. “I love you, too,” she says.


	11. Alex/Nick, Nick on the road

“Hey, Nick, you wanna hang out?”

Nick tears his eyes off his phone and looks up. “Huh?”

“You wanna watch a movie or something?” Connor asks.

They have a game tomorrow and they went out for dinner with the team, but the two of them decided that they weren’t in the mood for drinks after, so they headed back to the hotel. They definitely have time for a movie, though. “Oh,” Nick says. “Sure.”

They go to Connor’s room and find a movie to watch, both of them sitting on Connor’s bed. Nick is definitely not watching the movie. He hasn’t heard from Alex in a couple of hours. And he’s not worried or anything, because Alex did mention that he might go out, but that’s literally all Nick knows.

And Alex obviously did go out. So he has better things to do than reply to a text Nick sent him. A few hours ago. He sent the text a few hours ago. Alex doesn’t usually take that long to reply. But he’s out with friends. So it’s fine.

It’s fine, but Nick still keeps pushing the home button on his phone, like messages will magically appear.

He doesn’t miss that Connor sneaks a glance at him.

Nick lights up his phone screen again and it shows him the time and date. No messages. His phone background is a picture of Emily snoozing on a Cardinals blanket. He misses her about as much as he misses Alex.

Connor clears his throat. “Nick?”

“Yeah?”

“Is everything okay?” Connor ask. “You waiting for a call?”

“Oh, no, it’s… nothing.”

Connor hums and turns his attention back to the movie for a few more minutes, then he says, “I miss Nessie.”

Nick looks over at him. Apparently he’s completely transparent.

“I called her earlier,” Connor goes on, “and she’s going out with friends tonight and I hope she’s having a great time, but I’m also mad because I’d rather talk to her all evening, you know?”

“You’ll see her in four days,” Nick says. He’ll see Alex in four days. Just four days.

“I know. But four days are long.”

“Yeah,” Nick says. They sure are.

“What’s Alex up to, do you know?” Connor asks.

Nick glances at his phone again. “I… don’t. I mean, he went out with… people. But. Yeah.”

Connor hums knowingly. “And it bugs you that you don’t know,” he says, like it’s obvious.

Maybe it is.

“No?” Nick says, indignant. He folds his arms across his chest. “Maybe.”

Connor laughs under his breath.

“I mean, it’s not like he has to send me his exact location or anything.” Nick shrugs, because it’s not like it really bothers him that much. Alex can do whatever he wants in his free time. “It’s just… he usually replies much faster.”

“Aw,” Connor says. “You want him to pay attention to you. That’s so cute.”

“It’s not. It’s clingy… I don’t wanna be clingy. I hate that I–” Nick stops talking when his phone chimes. It’s a text from his dad, about their upcoming dads’ trip.

“Not him, huh?”

Nick huffs and quickly replies to his dad. Then he pulls up Alex’s last text. It’s a picture of Byron that he sent, presumably before he went out – _he can’t believe we’re not going on another walk_. And after that it’s just texts from Nick, telling him to have a good time and asking him where he’s headed ten minutes later and then a picture of Nick’s food, because he couldn’t help himself and it looked really good. And then a text about the weather in Philadelphia – _it’s freezing here, is it cold back home?_

After that, Nick promised himself that he’d stop texting, because all those unanswered messages were too embarrassing and Alex is clearly not going to answer any time soon.

Now it’s over an hour later and Nick isn’t that embarrassed about all those messages anymore. He sends another one.

_give me call when you have time_

Because now he can stop waiting for replies. Alex will call him when he has a minute, hopefully before Nick goes to bed.

He watches the rest of the movie with Connor and he only checks his phone two more times before he eventually heads back to his own room down the hall. He can stay up for another fifteen or twenty minutes, or maybe he just won’t turn off his ringer tonight.

Nick is about to send Alex another message, just to say goodnight, when his phone finally starts ringing.

“Hey,” Nick says.

“Hey, what’s up?” Alex asks. He isn’t home yet. Nick can hear the murmur of voices and distant music in the background.

“Nothing, I just… You didn’t have to call.”

“But you told me to,” Alex says, clearly amused.

“I meant when you’re home.”

“Well, I probably won’t be going home any time soon. We’re at O’Brien’s and we’re watching the Grizzlies game, because apparently Andy grew up rooting for them and Finn keeps telling him to stop being happy about their goals. He’s threatened to break up with him like ten times.”

“So you’re out with the hockey guys?” Nick asks. He could have guessed as much.

“I am. Sorry, the reception in the basement at O’Brien’s is really bad, so I didn’t see your texts until just now. Did you just wanna make sure that I’m still alive?”

“I mean…” Nick leans back against his pillows. He knew Alex was fine, he was just being a big baby. “I guess I wanted to hear your voice. I’m sorry, I know you’re out with friends, so go be with your friends.”

“They can spare me for a few minutes, don’t worry,” Alex says. “You know, I like talking to you.”

“I like talking to you, too,” Nick says and wishes sincerely that he could stop being embarrassed about this. Alex probably thinks he’s really annoying and is just humoring him right now. “I’m sorry.”

“About what?”

“About… I’m sorry that I’m so… you know.”

“What?”

“Clingy,” Nick says. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re not clingy.”

“I sent you like… ten texts.”

“No, it wasn’t ten,” Alex says. “Maybe nine.”

Nick groans. “I’m gonna hang up now.”

“No, hey, don’t worry about it. You wanted to talk to me, that’s okay.”

“You’re not annoyed?”

“No, I’m not annoyed. I miss you and we haven’t had time to talk since you left and I’m glad I caught you. I thought you might have gone to bed.”

“I was about to.”

“I’ll give you another call the day after tomorrow, okay? I just have practice with the guys and some tape to watch,” Alex says. “But other than that, we can talk whenever you want.”

“Okay,” Nick says. “Go back to your friends.”

“I will. Good night.”

“Good night.”

“I miss you,” Alex says quietly.

Nick closes his eyes. “I’ll come straight to your house when we land on Saturday.”

“I’m not gonna be there.”

“I know, but…”

“Yeah,” Alex says. “Come straight to my house. Byron is gonna be so happy to see you.”

“You’re not taking him?”

“Not if you’re coming to my house,” Alex says. “I want you to have some company, because I’ll get home really late. I’ll ask my dog-walker to swing by during the day.”

“Thank you,” Nick says. It’ll be nice to come home and see Byron. He might actually swing by his own house to say hello to Emily, even though she’ll have Connor for company. Sometimes he feels bad that he spends so much time at Alex’s place.

“Yeah, of course.”

“I… I don’t know why it’s so hard this time,” Nick mumbles. It’s not his first roadie of the season and they have a way longer one coming up. This one’s just a week.

“I’m sorry,” Alex says. “I’ll try to be better about texting back.”

“No, you’re… Don’t worry.”

Alex laughs softly. “Okay. I’ll talk to you soon, yeah?”

“Yeah. I– Never mind. See you soon.”

“Very soon,” Alex says. “Bye.”

“Bye,” Nick says and wonders why he doesn’t just fucking tell Alex that he loves him already.


	12. Alex/Nick, Playoffs 2019

Nick calls Alex from the car after he’s dropped off Waldo at Nessie’s place. He feels better knowing that Waldo won’t be alone after the mess that was tonight.

Alex answers on the first ring, like he was waiting for Nick to call. He doesn’t say hello, just, “I’m at your house. If you don’t want me to be here when you get home, you need to tell me right now.”

“Stay there,” Nick says. He’s ten minutes away. Not even. Five. There’s virtually no traffic. It’s late.

“Okay.”

“Why are you at my house?”

“I thought you might want to sleep in your own bed tonight,” Alex says.

It’s funny, because Nick practically lives at Alex’s place these days anyway. His house basically belongs to Connor and Emily. He’s been bringing Emily to Alex’s house while he was on the road for more than a few days, because Byron loves her. Emily at least tolerates him. And Nick feels better knowing that she’s not in that huge house all by herself.

“Thank you,” Nick says, even though he wouldn’t have minded sleeping in Alex’s bed.

“I’ll see you soon, yeah?”

“Yeah, I’m almost there.”

“Okay,” Alex says softly. He doesn’t say anything else. He was at the game tonight, he watched them go down on home ice. He must have driven straight to Nick’s place afterwards. “You want me to stay on the phone?”

“No, I’m okay,” Nick says. He’s sad, of course he is, and he’s disappointed and angry, but he doesn’t want Alex to worry about him.   

They hang up and Nick turns on the radio, only to be told that the Connecticut Cardinals were eliminated from the playoffs tonight. He turns the radio off again and drives the rest of the way in silence.

He’s been eliminated from the playoffs many, many times, but it never gets easier.

When he pulls into his driveway, he finds Alex sitting on the front steps. Nick doesn’t take the car into the garage, he leaves it in the driveway and hops out. Alex smiles and opens up the front door for him, pushing back Byron, who has no idea that Nick just lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals and is just happy to see him.

Nick gives his head a quick pat and then turns around to plaster himself against Alex, who is still locking the door.

“Oh, hey, okay,” Alex says.

“Hey,” Nick says into Alex’s shirt. It’s a Cardinals shirt that Nick gave to him. In a way. Alex took it from Nick’s closet and Nick never asked him to give it back.

Alex wraps his arms around him tightly and starts running his fingers through Nick’s hair. It grew out quite a bit over the last few months, but now Nick wants nothing more than to cut it all off.

“How’s your thigh?” Alex asks.

“Fine,” Nick mutters. He blocked a shot during Game 6 and he ended up with a ginormous bruise on his thigh. Could be worse. It’ll go away eventually.

“Your wrist?”

“Hm.” That one’s been bugging him for over a month.

“And your–”

“Shh,” Nick says, because it doesn’t matter. It all hurts. Doesn’t matter. It’s gonna hurt for a while.

Alex sighs softly and gives him a squeeze. Kisses the top of his head. Then he says, “Let’s get you out of that suit, okay?”

“Okay.” Nick doesn’t move. “I want to shave.”

“All right,” Alex mumbles. He doesn’t push Nick up the stairs, though. He waits, gently rubbing Nick’s back, until Nick takes a deep breath and tugs himself away.

Alex follows him up the stairs, sits on Nick’s bed with Emily in his lap, and waits while Nick gets out of his suit and shaves off his pitiful playoff beard. It’s not even really a beard. Once it’s gone, he considers his hair. It’s long enough that he can pull it into a bun and he didn’t mind it, but now it’s just a reminder that they made it this far and lost.

He glances at Alex. “Would you break up with me if I was bald?”

Alex spends about three seconds trying not to laugh, but then bursts out laughing anyway and flops back onto the bed, Emily extremely offended by all the movement. She hops off the bed and makes herself comfortable on a windowsill.

“Alex,” Nick grumbles and shuffles into the bedroom.

“Please don’t take the whole shaving thing too far,” Alex says and reaches out to pull Nick into bed with him.

“I’m just…” Nick fits himself against Alex’s side.

“I know,” Alex says and starts running his fingers through Nick’s hair again. Maybe Nick would miss that if he got rid of it all. Alex turns his head so he can kiss Nick’s forehead, lips lingering against his skin. “I know.”

Nick closes his eyes. “I’m going to sleep now,” he mumbles. He knows they’re lopsided on the bed, but he doesn’t care enough to move.

“Okay,” Alex says. “I’ve got you.”

Nick hums and falls asleep within seconds.


End file.
